Everyone went to bed Saturday night at 11 and I had to get up at 1 am to make it to the airport in St. Louis as well as give myself time to return the rental gar, gas it up on the way out of Keokuk AND before I returned it, as well as give myself extra time for my directional handicaps. Randi made me promise to get her up before I left and we said our goodbye. 🙁 I got gas in the car and bought a bottled vanilla Starbucks coffee (come into play soon) and other stuff.
As you can imagine in a town of 11,000 people, at 1:30 in the morning there are very few people on the road so I was playing with the lights trying to figure out how to get my high-beams on. I was probably flashing them on and off for a quarter of a mile and there was maybe one car that passed me the other way. Going down the road a little bit further, I noticed a cop car behind me and I get pretty freaked out with cops anyway – let alone in a small town and when I wasn’t speeding or doing anything wrong. I became acutely aware that this cop was following me, he followed me through a small town (Hamilton) turned right behind me (still no flashing lights) and proceeded to follow me through the 35mph zone and into the 45mph zone. The entire time I’m not going one mile over the posted speed limit.
As soon as I crossed from the 35 into the 45 he flashed on his lights and pulled me over. He came over to my window and asked for my license and proof of insurance. I explained that it was a rental card and the only thing I had was my license and my USAA card (has my member number on it but doesn’t list coverage) and I asked why I had been pulled over. He told me (and not too nicely, I might add) to look at my dash. I did and said, “I wasn’t speeding.” He said, “No, but you’ve been flashing your lights at oncoming traffic for miles now. Didn’t you see all the cars flashing their lights to let you know you had them on?” Uh no. Apologetically (I probably said sorry 10 times) I told him it was a rental car and I was trying to figure out how to turn the high-beams on. He says, “I need you to step out of the vehicle.” I oblige thinking he assumes I’m drunk and is gonna make me walk a line or something. Then he tells me to get in his car with him so he can run my license and the plates on the car. I hesitantly agreed to leave the car, keeping the lights on and the engine running. My cell phone was charging and he wouldn’t let me grab that or my purse. Warning bells are going off in my head at this point as I’m freaking out even more. One county over from us (Prince William), men are posing as cops with cop cars and wig wags and everything, pulling young, single women over and then raping or abducting them. No one knew exactly where I was and no one would suspect I was missing for hours until I didn’t show up at Dulles as expected. I obediently followed the cop, not wanting to delay my trip any further and figured this was the easiest way to leave there *especially* without a ticket.
I reluctantly climbed into the passenger front seat of his patrol car but kept the door open in case I needed to quickly escape. I’ve heard about the police doors and how they won’t open from the inside, although that might just be in the back. He proceeded to ask me if I’d been drinking. Shocked, I told him no. He’s still running my license and moving it back and forth to make sure the license is authentic and hasn’t been tampered with. (I’m sure this cop has probably never seen a license outside of the midwest and was skeptical about it from the moment he saw it.) He then asks what I was doing before I got in the car, where I was going so early in the morning, and what I was doing out there from Virginia in the first place. I, trying hard to stay poised and calm, told him that I was out there for a graduation and that my best friend was graduating from the nursing program at Southeastern Community College in Keokuk. I told him that before I started driving I was sleeping and had only been up for a short while giving me enough time to get gas and some coffee before he pulled me over. He says, “So you’re sure you haven’t had anything to drink?” “No, I haven’t.” “Well were you around people who were drinking?” “No, we were all sleeping.” Then he starts badgering me, “You’re *sure* you haven’t had anything to drink?” “Yes, I’m sure” (I think I would remember if I snuck out from Randi’s house, went to a liquor store I didn’t know was there, bought some unknown alcoholic beverage, drank it, went back to sleep, woke up at my scheduled time and said goodbye Randi without her noticing that I had been drinking alcohol in a Mormon household.). He’s like, “Well I smell alcohol on you. So if you say you haven’t been drinking then what do I smell?” Grrr. Baffled I tell him, “I just bought a bottled vanilla Starbucks and drank all of that before I was pulled over. That’s the only thing I’ve had other than some pretzels.” The information on my license came back clean (of course). He then goes on to tell me, “I know what I smell and I smell alcohol. I know you’ve been drinking. I’m gonna need for you to do an eye movement test.”
Before starting he asked if I had contacts in or had any eye conditions he should know about. I told him that I had just had LASIK two weeks prior. He says, “So you don’t have contacts in then?” “No, I had surgery on my eyes. That’s something I thought you should know.” He then proceeded to get out a pen and make me follow it with my eyes without moving my head. Not a problem I followed it for like 5 minutes and then he’s like well has you doctor ever told you that you have something amblyopia. I told him, “No, I used to have an astigmatism before having eye surgery.” Eye care professional that he was, he said, “No, an astigmatism is an imperfection in the shape of the eye. Amblyopia is where your eye twitches.” “No, I don’t have that but my eyes are still recovering from LASIK. I’m not even supposed to be doing eye movement exercises when in my yoga class.” Then he decided I was even more drunk, “Yoga? What does that have to do with this?” I explain, “Before moving into the yoga poses during a yoga class, we warm up each body part including the eyes. Because my eyes are still recovering from LASIK, I’ve been advised not to participate or strain my eyes while they are healing by doing the eye movements.” Still not believing me, he was like, “Well how long is the recovery period supposed to last?” I told him my eyes are still recovering for at least 3 months and will still be changing. And then goes about writing me a warning and tells me again how dangerous it is to flash my lights at oncoming traffic and one last time, “Are you sure you haven’t had anything to drink tonight?” He gives me the ticket and tells me I can leave.
I eagerly fled his car and walked swiftly to my rental car, a haven after that ordeal. As I moved back onto the empty highway, he followed me before deciding that it wasn’t worth his time (and was probably out of his jurisdiction) and turned around the other way. I have yet to write a letter to the Hamilton Police Department expressing my outrage and fear over what happened. I don’t know if anything will come of it but I’ll have done my part in calling attention to this particular cop.
Yesterday I had my one month follow up for my eyes. My vision is now 20/10! According to my doctor this is the “threshold of human vision.” He slapped my leg and was shocked that my eyes had improved even more and seemed pretty impressed and pleased over my increasing vision. Casey’s benefiting for my super x-ray’esque vision when we’re driving and he uses my surgery as an excuse not to have to drive because we need to test drive my new eyes. I’m happy with everything, just wish it would dry up so my allergies wouldn’t be so bad.
After hearing how good the finale of “CSI” (the original) was (directed by Quentin Tarantino) we watched it. While being one of the better episodes we had watched, CSI needs to take direction from NBC shows “Medium” and “Las Vegas” about how a finale should end…with a cliffhanger making you eagerly await the premier in the fall. Officially all the shows we watch are on hiatus till fall. We TiVo’ed Rob & Ambuh’s wedding but have yet to watch it. We’re getting desperate on things to watch so post on the tag board if you have any suggestions. “Lost” is already scheduled to be recorded.
We’ve made no plans for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend (the one this month, Casey). We were thinking about going down to Panama City Beach for our anniversary and the holiday weekend but decided to save that extra money for our house hunt. We’ve decided to get a mortgage payment at the same amount we pay for rent we’re going to have to (a) win the lotto, (b) win The Amazing Race, or (c) have a wealthy relative (do we have one of those?) take pity (or favor) on us. We were also invited to Hillsville, VA (6 hours southwest of Fairfax) with Rachel and family for camping but although, I haven’t asked Casey yet I’m sure he would want to insist on flying if we did go. 😉 Since we can’t BBQ here we’re even more eager to have a home where we can BBQ for next Memorial Day.
After finishing this book – Stoli and I are off to run errands.